I step into the ring like a kingpin, giving all I got. Gonna take my shot; let’s go. I hit ‘em like a kingpin. Going hard non-stop. Coming out on top.” From Kingpin, written by EDVN, Sam Tinnesz and Deane.

“The older the habit, the harder it is to break.” Yeah, well I think I just broke a habit I’ve had for 65 years. I’ve got habits that are old enough to collect Social Security.

Back towards the end of the Eisenhower Administration (google it), one of my local teevee stations started airing old — even then — Buster Crabbe Flash Gordon serials. Great, great stuff. All three of them, although the first is the best. The villain, Ming the Merciless, was played by the great 1930s character actor Charles Middleton, who also performed in Gone With The Wind, Duck Soup (He was Chico Marx’s prosecutor.), Show Boat, and the original 1943 Batman serial. He immediately became my favorite film villain. In my unreasonable mind, he beat out brilliant performers such as Roger Delgado, Bette Davis, and Christoph Waltz.

Until now.

Vincent D’Onofrio has been playing Marvel’s Kingpin Wilson Fisk for ten years — ten years next week, in fact. A brilliant performer, he’s one of those guys I’d watch in anything. He even played Robert E. Howard. And he was at the top of his game the first five times he did the role: on all three Daredevil series on Netflix, on both Echo and Hawkeye on their respective Disney+ series. Now he has returned to the role in the current Daredevil: Born Again series based upon the Frank Miller / David Mazzucchelli storyline back in 1986. But the Kingpin has evolved over the course of all of those previous episodes: he still has his ego and his charm, but now he’s successfully run for mayor of New York City and he wants to clean up the city… his way. To do this, he must discover how to fake humility. Continue reading “Brainiac On Banjo: Born? Yes. Again?” →